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# # # # Researchers have been developing vaccines for Parkinson’s in the hope of not only treating individuals currently affected by the condition, but also limiting the incidence of the condition in future generations. Some of these vaccines are being clinically tested and the results are encouraging. In today’s post, we will review clinical trial results recently published by a biotech company called Vaxxinity and what comes next for the field. # # # # |
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Source: NationalTrust
The return of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont) to England in 1721 represented a monumental – but little appreciated moment – in Western medical history.
Five years earlier, her husband Edward Wortley Montagu had been appointed Ambassador to the Ottoman empire, and they had moved to Constantinople (now Istanbul). In March 1717, the 27 year old Mary – whose only brother had died from smallpox – witnessed the practice of inoculation against smallpox called variolation, which she herself called “engrafting” when she wrote home about it in her letters.
Source: Guardian
Variolation was the method of inoculation used to immunize individuals against smallpox (Variola) with material taken from a patient (or a recently variolated individual), in the hope that a mild infection would result and provide protection. Only 1–2% of those variolated died from the induced infection, but this was much better than the >30% who contracted smallpox naturally.
In 1718, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu asked that her five-year-old son, Edward be inoculated against smallpox, and after the procedure, wrote to her husband:
“The boy was engrafted last Tuesday, and is at this time singing and playing, and very impatient for his supper” (Source)
And before they left Turkey in 1721, she had her daughter Mary inoculated as well. Mary and her brother were the first English people to be immunized against a disease. Upon her return to London, she enthusiastically promoted the idea of variolation. Unfortunately she encountered a great deal of resistance from the medical establishment, and the idea didn’t really catch on.
This is very interesting, but what does this have to do with Parkinson’s?
The Science of Parkinson's 